I think that they should work like moderators in each board. Each board has a few merit sources, voted by members of that board. I don't think the community is active enough to achieve this and I do believe it's subject to manipulation by alts, though in a world where the sense of community was at this level where it could work, that would be a cool thing to see.
Great suggestion! Merit sources for a board shouldn’t be members of that same board. Instead, they should be assigned to different local boards, especially now that translations work effectively.
That's actually not what I meant. I meant that each board votes for the members most active/top contributing to that board as the merit source
for that board in something like a pinned thread on each board, for its board and sub-boards. E.g. the German board vote on a merit source of someone who is active and top contributing in the German board and its sub boards, the gambling board has its merit sources who are primarily active in the gambling board, and so on. That way each board is stimulated with merits in a more balanced way in comparison to the way it works now which seems less democratic and more based on popularity contest/unofficial voting by members of each board.